Norwegian publisher and developer Funcom has announced the amount of money armchair barbarians can expect to shell out from beneath their loincloths to play
Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, with the MMO's retail box costing $59.99 and €49.99 in North America and Europe respectively. Beyond that initial outlay of coins, swinging an axe in Hyborea will carry a monthly subscription price of $14.99 in North America and €12.99 for players on the other side of the Atlantic.
However, while
the oft-
delayed MMO has seen a
healthy influx of interest during the game's beta test, this hasn't clouded Funcom's gift for the obvious, with the company stating in an
investor update that "the success of the game will depend first and foremost on the response it receives from players after several hours of playtime of the finished product."
[Via
Massively]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Guess we'll just have to beat it until they're REALLY ripping us off(a la Rock Band).
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Sorry but I dont think too many people will be falling for that. But then again, many people buy a bunch of DVDs and BluRay discs that theyll probably watch once or twice, so yeah I am sure there will be plenty of dummies that will be shelling out the dough.
I just fail to see the sense of it. Especially for Conan.
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You haven't happened to notice some of the hype around the game, have you?
Oh, and there's no way in hell they're going to make retailers raise the price now (from $50 to $60). It's either a misprint or it'll be ignored.
According to Gamestop, the Xbox 260 version will cost $59.99, but that's not shipping next month, it's listed for September.
Please, for the love of all that's well-researched, take a minute to Google things before you get all reactionary. Do you really believe that the hot girls in Match.com ads want to webcam with you, too?
Don't worry I'm happy there will be less 13 year olds on the server anyways.
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And why would this game fail solely based on it being a Conan game with a fee?
Just as with most other MMORPG's on the market, it's going to be judged on what it has available to the playerbase at launch, and over the first 6 months. That stretch of time (6 months), is going to make or break most MMO's. Is there enough content to keep you busy without feeling too repetitive? Are there differences in quests/areas depending on your race/class at the start of the game? How does the end-game play out?
If Conan really DOES deliver on the PvP aspects of the game, and can also still have a solid, fast-paced PvE experience, I actually think it will do quite well.
There are still people holding onto hope that Tabula Rasa will become the game people WANT it to be (And that it should have been on release), paying a fee to play what is essentially a closed beta of the game (in the first few months of release, almost every class has been gutted and refitted with new skills, taking skills away and tweaking the existing ones). But it's definately hurting in playerbase numbers, because of this.
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Guess what? If no one bitches, then Warhammer Online comes out at $69.95, and the next big game after that at $79.95. It won't be just $10 then.
Games sell for what the market will bear, and its up to consumers to not bear these hikes. After all, if their game is decent, people will be handing them $15/month for a long time to come. Doesn't it make more sense to get people into the subscription stream for as little as possible?
I cannot fathom how someone could say "HA. $180 a year????? To play Conan?" Do you even HAVE a computer?
Btw, City of Heroes is better than WoW. *ducks*
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In fact, from the limited parts we were allowed to play with, it was pretty fun. FC has some bugs to work out, but the last month or so of development is always for bugfixing/optimization.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up a little buggy at release, but it won't be remotely close to the unplayable mess Vanguard was.
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http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/Funcom_update220408.pdf
Quote:
Key pricing parameters for the game will be:
o The Standard game SKU will have a
Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of 59,99
USD in North America and at 49.99 Euro in
the European markets.
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Sorry, thanks but no thanks. All you who bitch about Xbox Live costing $50 a year, I wonder how many of you pay the prices of MMOs monthly. Jack nuts
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You must be cheaper than WOW or you will fail. There is no other way to gain a foothold, no matter how great your game is.
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That being said, for those people who claim it is STUPID to pay to keep playing a game, how many rpg's have you played, that keep providing you with additional content on a regular basis? GM's online while you are playing the game, to help with issues you may experience, and to help drive in-game events?
Now, I will be the FIRST to say that most companies want to jump on the MMO Bandwagon WITHOUT providing all of that, which is why I'm out of the MMORPG market for the moment. Even to this day developers still have a hard time keeping the content coming fast enough, and diverse enough to maintain a successful fanbase.
And honestly, WoW is a fluke. WoW does NOTHING different than any other MMORPG that came LONG before it, and nothing different from what has come since. WoW is huge because it's Blizzard, and over half of their subscription numbers come from the asian market, who worship Warcraft and Starcraft (Blizzard won't make a Starcraft MMO unless/until WoW is completely dead, because they KNOW the Asian market would bury WoW to jump onto that).
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Common sense prevails as the game isn't going to instantly tank if people don't start playing straight away...
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And its not really Funcom's fault that you lot goes to war screwing up your economy.
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I'm looking forward to Conan myself but I admit I was skeptical as to whether FunCom could pull it off. The crappy website they had for the longest time and lack of videos etc aggravated that. It has gotten a lot better lately, with all the beta info streaming out and so forth.
If they'd offer the game for 5€ a month the risk would be high that people would be turned away by that alone. "Oh, only 5 bucks, this can't be a real MMORPG". People are weird that way. But ask yourself: any product, if you have a price in mind would you actually check out products that are half or a quarter of that price?
And to the people still arguing against subscriptions: It's really fine if you just don't like MMORPG games but for those who do it's a singular bargain. I know this from WoW: I didn't play (let alone buy) a single other game in over a year. You end up spending so much time in it (even if you aren't an uber-raid-freak) that the price per entertainment hour is lower than any other alternative. For christ's sake, going to the movies is almost the same as the monthly fee if you have popcorn and beer with your ticket.
Lot's of thing can be said against the likes of AoC or WoW but the cost argument is a little ridiculous.
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If you want my $50 for a game that I HAVE TO PAY a subscription to enjoy, let me try it first. Otherwise, I'll continue to play my Sins of a Solar Empire and WoW.
I refuse to buy an MMO unless I can see it and play it. Otherwise, it's a $50 gamble that I'm not willing to make. It's too bad I can't download a limited time/level demo to take it for a test spin. That's how you get people sucked in.
About some of the reviews and E3 comments, I've seen several games that fell far short of expectations and play that were demonstrated or touted as "Best Game at ___". I won't buy it based on anything other than someone I trust saying it's good and letting me see his game.
I'm glad that they're able to make a dent in the MMO market though, it will only help the industry as a whole.
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